


After all this time

by WatermelonTuesdays



Series: Finding Family [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Author is Thirsty for Shiro, Blow Jobs, Dorks in Love, Gay Disaster Shiro (Voltron), Hand Jobs, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith (Voltron) is a Mess, Light Angst, Love Confessions, M/M, Past Acxa/Keith, Sexuality Crisis, Slow Dancing, so is keith, two gay dorks in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-09-18 06:20:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16989657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WatermelonTuesdays/pseuds/WatermelonTuesdays
Summary: When it's first pointed out to Keith that he has the hots for Shiro, Keith is dismissive. But the more he thinks about it, the more it makes sense.------After 5 days in his own personal hell in which he overthought every interaction he had ever had with Shiro, he had come to the following conclusion.1: Keith was not attracted to Shiro.2: He couldn’t possibly be attracted to him: they had been best friends for too long for that kind of thing.3: He couldn’t very well continue to avoid Shiro indefinitely over an attraction that he definitely didn’t have.4: On the very extremely, slimly, infinitesimal chance he did harbour some kind of latent attraction to Shiro, he should be able to test it.





	1. Granted

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick reminder that all these stories go together but don't necessarily need to be read together. But part 4, "The Lies We Tell," ends with Shiro kind of realizing he's in love with Keith. 
> 
> Also, I wrote this with the intention of having some fun with Disaster Gay Shiro, but I think Keith might have been an even bigger disaster gay in the end..... oh well! C'est la vie.
> 
> This series was supposed to be done with this update, but if you're interested, stick around, because I wasn't able to get the NSFW content written in time but it will be along shortly.

“You know, it’s weird to think you dated her at all.”

The words stopped Keith in his tracks, not just from their suddenness – he and Acxa had broken up more than a month before, it was old news now – but from the surprise of who had uttered them.

He turned, his disbelief evident in the slowness of the movement and in the cautious way he looked James Griffin up and down. 

“Nobody really asked your opinion.” Keith folded his arms unconsciously. Not that he still hated James, he had long since given up that animosity, but that didn’t make him Keith’s first choice to discuss life choices.

“I know, but still… it’s weird.” James offered a shrug like that was explanation enough. “I thought you only ever had eyes for Shiro…”

“Shiro?!”

James scoffed. He may have matured over the years, but there were still hints of the arrogant kid he used to be. Especially when it was just him and Keith. “Yeah, dude. You used to follow him around like a little duckling with stars in your eyes.” Then he added in a low voice, “still do, if you ask me.”

“Did I not just say? I didn’t ask you.”

James shrugged again and made a show of lifting his boot to his knee and scraping it clean. 

Keith began to move away, but James’ voice stopped him again.

“Doesn’t stop it from being true, though.” 

This time, Keith didn’t turn. Instead, he raised an arm high over head and flipped James off without a glance behind. 

His middle finger was still raised in its rude salute when he turned through the hangar’s large bay door and walked straight into the man himself.

“That’s quite the greeting, Keith” Shiro said lightly, his eyebrow raised in a glance at Keith’s extended finger.

“Shiro!” Keith pulled his arm back down and hid his hand in his other fist, holding himself at ease like he was about to be chewed out by his superior officer. He wasn’t going to be, but that didn’t matter. “I was just… Griffin.” 

“Ahh,” Shiro said, smile firm on his lips, “that explains it.”

“Guess I didn’t punch him hard enough way back when.” He said it straight, though there was a twitch to his lips that showed the joke for what it was. 

Smile never wavering, Shiro leaned to the side so that he could place his elbow against the wall of the hangar and lean his head into his wide palm. It was a casual looking position despite the fact that the gap in his new arm must have made it difficult to maintain. 

“Too bad,” he said.

That was not the response Keith was expecting. He had been expecting a ‘Keith’ said in the exact tone that said Shiro was amused but also disapproved at the same time.

Shiro seemed to notice that his response was out of character because his smile grew stiff and frozen. It was immediately forgotten, however, because in the span of a heartbeat Shiro’s arm slipped against the wall and Shiro fell sideways with an unhealthy cracking sound.

“Shiro!” Keith cried and reached for his friend, his hands finding a grip on Shiro’s waist and on his firm bicep. He pulled Shiro back up to stand straight.

“Huh… must be time to recalibrate the arm…” Shiro mused to himself, rubbing his cool metal palm to the sore spot on his skull and blushing a deep shade of pink. 

“Are you ok?” Keith leaned forward, his hand replacing Shiro’s to brush lightly and check for any signs of cuts or contusions. 

“Uh, buh- Yes! Ya, no,” Shiro coughed, “I’m fine, Keith.” 

He looked dark as a tomato when Keith pulled back. Keith let it slide, thinking it must be fairly embarrassing for the Intrepid Captain of the IGF Atlas to be made such a fool at his own hand: by his own hand.

“Ok. But you’d better be careful, I don’t want to have to save you from yourself.”

Shiro’s laugh was startlingly loud. Loud enough that Keith felt the hackles on his neck rise from surprise. 

“You sure you’re ok?”

Keith reached up to touch at Shiro’s head once more, but Shiro caught his wrist with his flesh hand. 

“I’m fine, Keith,” he said sincerely. He looked like he wanted to say more: a great deal more, judging by the way his eyes flickered between Keith’s. 

Absently, Shiro strummed his thumb across Keith’s pulse while he stumbled over his next words. It was a simple and likely involuntary gesture, but it shot through Keith like a bolt of lightning and filled him with something he did not recognize.

Keith whipped his arm back to his side and took an unintentional step backwards, cutting off whatever Shiro was going to say before he could get a full word out. 

“I, uh…” Keith stammered. He wanted to get out of there quickly, but didn’t know how to extract himself without making Shiro worry. “I…”

Just then, he was saved by the tool.

“Captain Shirogane?” Griffin asked, poking his head out the hangar door, and leveling them both with a glance that clearly stated he had heard every word that had been said and was choosing to be the bigger man. “Didn’t you want to see me, Sir?”

“Wha-? Oh, right, yes. Of course, thank you cadet. I’ll be right there.” 

Shiro shook himself back into action and straightened out his uniform. He gave Keith a small tight-lipped smile, like he was sorry to have to cut things short, and then stepped around Keith to follow Griffin back into the hangar. 

For his part, Keith managed to keep his cool for exactly the 10 seconds it took Shiro to disappear through the wide door before he hightailed it out of there so fast he left a cloud of dust in his wake. 

He raced to his room and locked himself in. He had a meeting soon with Pidge and Hunk to go over new additions to the lions’ defenses and he needed desperately to get his shit together before then.

Because what the ever-loving-FUCK was that?!

It had to be James’ fault for putting weird thoughts into Keith’s head. But Keith could swear that that small touch to his wrist had lit up every nerve in Keith’s body. It was stunning, and largely terrifying. 

He had no idea what it meant, because he had never felt anything like that before – and Keith had been literally electrocuted before. It had never happened before. Over the course of their nearly decade long friendship (give or take a few years on a space whale and a massive time jump via exploding reality) Keith had probably touched Shiro just about everywhere two friends could touch. They sparred so regularly, and in such various shades of undressed, that Keith was reasonably familiar with all of Shiro’s scarred and muscled body.

Hell, it wasn’t even the first time Shiro had touched his wrist! Not by far. 

But this had been different than any of that… very different.

The feeling was long gone now, it had left the moment he had snatched his arm away from Shiro’s grasp, but the memory lingered in Keith’s synapses like a haunting dream. 

Keith looked at the clock by his bed and allowed himself 4 minutes to panic and overthink the situation in all the myriad ways it could be over-thought. 

He was in the midst of a dark conspiracy that the electricity behind Shiro’s touch had been a sign that he had once again been replaced by a clone of himself when Keith’s 4 minutes finished. It was a feat of mental strength for Keith to haul himself back to reality and to stop preparing himself for yet another journey to find and save Shiro.

He took the three calming breaths that Hunk had shown him and checked himself in the mirror. He looked fine. Normal. Unchanged. 

Looking at himself he could almost feel the same.

Keith gave himself another minute to breathe and calm down. When he finally stepped out of his room, it was as if it had never happened. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Keith found Shiro in one of the Atlas’s 3 training rooms a few days later. He was alone, with the door barred with a code that only Keith and Coran (as first mate of the Atlas) were privy to. He was lying on the floor with the lights dimmed, a star map twinkling through the room above him, and an arm draped over his forehead, partially blocking the stars from view.

He visibly tensed at the sound of the door sliding open, but relaxed again when he spotted Keith standing there in his civilian clothes.

“Oh, it’s you, Keith,” he sounded pleased. “I was scared it was Coran coming to check up on me.”

“Check up on you?” Keith asked, crossing his legs to sit beside his friend.

“I’m supposed to be getting inspiration for another Coalition recruitment speech.” He sighed, then peaked out from under his wrist to look cheekily up at Keith, “But at least this hides me away from Slav for the time being.”

Keith laughed at that and leaned back on his hands, reviewing the map floating above their heads. 

“I heard he got in last night. He had some issues with his accommodations, didn’t he?”

“Some!” Shiro cried, affronted. He threw his arms and legs into the air in a huff before pinching at his nose dramatically. “You have no idea. The first place was too close to the bunker which gave an increased 45% chance of dying in an explosion. The second was too far from the bunker and increased the likelihood that this is the reality where we are all wiped out from cataclysmic earthquakes. One had a leaky faucet, one had too many blankets on his bed, one was too silent. One!” Shiro lifted his hand again to glare up at Keith like this was all his personal fault, “One of them had too many blue pens on the desk, which meant there was a 72.999825% chance that this was the reality in which spiders rise up and overthrow humanity. Spiders, Keith!”

Keith looked seriously down at Shiro. “Do you think they’d have a chance against the Galra? Cos if the spiders want the job…”

They both burst into laughter before Keith could finish the joke.

“… it’s all… it’s all… ha! Ha ha! … it’s all theirs!” Keith finished, holding his aching sides.

It was another minute before Shiro was able to end his imitation of an up-ended turtle and stop his uncontrollable laughter. 

“Ahh,” Shiro sighed, coming down from his high, “I hate him.”

“Nah,” Keith protested, intending to tap Shiro’s arm but hitting through the gap and getting his chest instead. “You don’t hate anyone.”

“I hate a few people.” Shiro’s tone wasn’t exactly serious, but it had sobered enough that Keith knew he had accidentally struck a nerve. 

“Maybe,” Keith hedged, “but Slav’s ok. He’s helped us so much.”

“Yeah.”

“I know Pidge was saying she’s finally starting to get used to his quirks. She’s learning a crazy lot from him. Though I told her if she starts picking up on his alternate reality bull  
shit, she’s out of the band.”

Shiro snorted a laugh. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Keith turned to lean over Shiro, looking down at him with an easy smile. “You can take her place.” 

“I can do a wicked drum solo. For the band,” Shiro clarified, seeing the momentary confusion in Keith’s eyes. 

“Pssh, Hunk’s drummer. You can play bass,” Keith said dismissively. 

He turned back up to the star chart as they both fell into an easy silence. After a while he stretched himself out beside Shiro, with his fingers folded behind his head in a sort of vaguely comfortable pillow, and his elbow grazing the top of Shiro’s fluffy white hair.

“It’s amazing how much has changed since we’ve been gone, isn’t it?” Shiro asked in a quiet, reverent voice. It’s the voice he always gets when they talk about the stars together. It’s the voice he will always use when they talk about the stars together, no matter how many times they journey through their midst, no matter how many millions of lightyears they travel from Earth, no matter all of the horrors and wonders they discover and name. This is a constant that Keith can be sure of. 

His head tilted to look at Shiro without his conscious direction, moving unbidden to watch Shiro examine the map.

“Not just in the 3 years of our time skip, but in the 3 we were gone before that too. Look, whole sections of the universe have changed. See there? That red giant star? It used to be a sun just like ours, with it’s own system around it, but it expanded while we were gone and wiped the rest out. And that nebula there, that’s grown too. And the Rundorig system, that was destroyed in the chaos when Lotor’s disappearance created a power vacuum for the Galra. It’s all different. It’s always changing.

“You know, we tend to think that the stars are static and forever; because it takes so long for their light to reach us we think they’re somehow outside of time. But they’re a part of this universe same as anything else. They move, and change, and grow, and smash together. Just like all the people on all those planets across all of that infinite space. They’re all out there, living their lives. And so many of them are waiting for us – for Voltron – for that hope that they were missing while we were gone.”

Keith watched Shiro as he spoke. Watched how his brow smoothed out as he searched the air above them for changes. Watched how he smiled as he pointed out those changes to Keith. Watched how his eyes lit up as if reflecting the light of real stars.

 _‘…like a little duckling with stars in your eyes.’_

The memory of James’ taunt stopped Keith short, his eyes growing wide and confused. 

Shiro was still talking, but Keith was no longer listening. He was still looking at Shiro, but his eyes were no longer truly seeing. 

Had he been doing it just now? Looking at Shiro like… that? 

No, this was just how he always looked at Shiro. This was how he always admired Shiro during their quiet moments together. These moments were few and far between and so Keith had to memorize them, treasure them, before they were gone. That’s how it’s always been.

But isn’t that exactly what James had been saying?

But that didn’t mean… that couldn’t mean…

“Keith, you still with me?”

Shiro’s velvet voice knocked Keith from his inner monologue just in time to watch Shiro roll to his side, brows furrowed in concern, face and lips so close Keith felt suddenly like there was not enough air in the room.

Keith shot into a sitting position. He wrapped his arms around his legs at the last second, assuming a familiar pose that he hoped would help his sudden confusion to fly under Shiro’s radar.

“Sorry, Shiro, I got a little lost in thought.”

“That’s ok, Keith…” Shiro’s sentence ended like he wanted to say more, but Keith cut him off first.

“Looks like you found your inspiration.”

“What?” Shiro blinked up at Keith’s turned back for a long moment before the light came on. “Oh! For my speech, you mean? Heh, yeah, I guess I did. You, uh, you really helped.”  
Keith shrugged, “I didn’t really do anything.”

“You didn’t have to. I just think better when you’re around.”

Keith turned his head away so that even his peripheral view of Shiro’s legs was gone.

Like that wasn’t confusing as hell for him. It was worse because he knew it was true, he felt the same way about Shiro. But surely Shiro hadn’t meant it in a… a romantic way… right? That couldn’t possibly be possible. Right?

“Glad to be of help,” Keith managed with passable sincerity. 

“It is a help, Keith. Really.” The comfortable weight of a mechanical hand rested on Keith’s shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze to reinforce Shiro’s words.

Keith stiffened under the touch. He didn’t shrug Shiro off, but it was hardly 30 seconds before Keith was pulling himself to his feet and dusting himself off.

“I should get back. I said I’d meet mom and Kolivan for some one-on-three training.”

“Who’s the third?”

“No idea. Makes life interesting, I guess.”

Shiro laughed easily at that, looking up at Keith through eyes that were crinkled from mirth. “Interesting. Is that what’s missing from our lives?”

“Yup. They’re not interesting enough.”

“I’ll pass that along.”

Keith hesitated before walking away. He and Shiro just stared at each other, one standing, one lying on the floor, each looking roughly upside down to the other. Though he had been desperate to leave just a moment ago, now Keith didn’t seem to want to go. The mood had lightened with their jokes, and it was hard to leave this kind of easy comradery; he couldn’t find it anywhere else. 

“Well… I’d better… go…” Keith said, backing away awkwardly. 

Shiro tilted his head higher and higher, he watched Keith back away until he reached the door and disappeared from sight.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Keith hadn’t exactly lied to Shiro. He did have a training scheduled with Krolia and Kolivan. He just failed to mention that the training wasn’t scheduled for another two hours. 

The best remedy, and the best way to keep the omission from turning into a lie by omission, was to head directly to the garrison training room and start some cardio and limbering up for the upcoming match. If that plan happened to give him unrestricted access to the training rooms during a notoriously un-busy time of day, simultaneously providing Keith with an excuse to leave Shiro and giving Keith a place to work through his thoughts, then that was just a happy coincidence. 

It was a win-win-win plan until Keith had stretched, ran the treadmill, and practiced on the jump rope and was finally forced to admit that it had done nothing to calm the storm within him. He was just as confused as ever. Plus, being left alone with his thoughts was turning him cranky and bitter. 

He had thought he was done with all this self-doubt and inner turmoil when he had left Acxa. Why had James have to put all these absurd ideas into his head?! It wasn’t fair. Couldn’t Keith have a moment’s rest from his personal drama to focus on something else? Anything else? Like, oh, maybe saving the universe?

But no, all James had to do was go and make one smart-ass comment to Keith and now suddenly Keith couldn’t even touch his best friend without sparks flying.

It had happened again. The moment Shiro’s hand clasped over Keith’s shoulder it had been like an electrical current running up and down his spine. Hell! Even before that, when Shiro’s face was so close Keith could almost feel his breath stirring his hair, his whole body thrummed like he was lying beside a live wire. 

It couldn’t be healthy. Likely it would only ruin their friendship. 

Whatever it was, it was powerful and dangerous. But Keith would be damned if he’d let it take him or his friendship down.

Keith was laying on a bench near the weights, moping, when Kolivan and Krolia walked in. They walked close together and Kolivan’s hand slipped down Krolia’s back as he ushered her through the door. Krolia shivered at the touch, and turned to Kolivan with a mischievous light in her eyes that Keith didn’t really need to see right now.

Except… that shiver. 

Was that like the electricity he had felt for Shiro? 

Several things suddenly clicked into place in Keith’s mind. The sparks he was suddenly feeling for Shiro, the passion he had been desperately trying to forge with Acxa, the easy mix of comradery and desire that Kolivan and his mother kept letting slip around him. It all slipped into place like tumblers in a lock. 

But no! 

That couldn’t be happening! Not for Shiro. Shiro was…

… Shiro was…

… It couldn’t be for Shiro.

“Keith, are you ok?” Krolia asked, her voice heavy with maternal concern.

“Hmm? Uh… yeah. Yes. Let’s warm up.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Keith managed to avoid the issue (and Shiro entirely) for about 5 days before it began to strain on his patience. After 5 days in his own personal hell in which he overthought every interaction he had ever had with Shiro, he had come to the following conclusion.

1: Keith was not attracted to Shiro.

2: He couldn’t possibly be attracted to him: they had been best friends for too long for that kind of thing.

3: He couldn’t very well continue to avoid Shiro indefinitely over an attraction that he definitely didn’t have.

4: On the very extremely, slimly, infinitesimal chance he did harbour some kind of latent attraction to Shiro, he should be able to test it. 

Keith had not spent so much time with Pidge and Hunk not to appreciate the beauty of a properly tested theory.  
Keith sat in the mess hall one day at lunch hour and studied his surroundings. He admittedly knew very little about physical attraction. The closest he’d ever felt to it was in those strange, pseudo-sexual sparring matches with Acxa, and even those relied too heavily on competition to be a real example. Instead, Keith kept his eyes trained on the officers and cadets that bustled through the busy cafeteria. 

He was looking for clear or obvious signs of attractions, things that he could look for in himself to help map out his body’s reaction to his planned proximity to Shiro. Though, before he began to invade Shiro’s personal space the first logical step seemed to be to check that Shiro was even attractive looking.

He knew Shiro was good looking – he’d have to be blind not to. And even blind, a quick run of his fingers over Shiro’s symmetrical face and bulging biceps would be all he’d need to know. But just being good looking wasn’t what Keith was after. He needed to know if he, personally, found Shiro to be attractive. 

As luck would have it, Shiro entered the room just as the thought was crossing Keith’s mind. 

Keith folded his fingers together and used them to rest his chin while he watched Shiro stride over to the pile of trays and then fall docilely in line behind a twittering group of young cadets. For once, Keith let his eyes wander his friend freely, actively examining the curve of his ass, the taut pull of his uniform across his chest, the delicate shadow of silver hair over his eyes. 

Shiro walked with a confidence that no one else in the room had. He held his head higher, kept his back straighter. He had a bearing of a captain and a leader at all times: emitted authority like waves of echolocation. 

For all that, he was still gentle. His smile was wide and indulgent towards the excitable cadets before him – no doubt they were shaken to find themselves in his presence – and he passed them napkins and cutlery from the rack beside him with a kindness that belied the mundanity of his task. 

Keith lost track of Shiro as he filed into the enclosed kitchen area to load up a tray of proteins and veggies, but Keith’s sharp eyes caught him again the moment he came out the other end. 

He was laughing with the cadets now, blushing and rubbing the back of his head nervously at some joke that had the young ones in stitches. He waved at them as they split up, adding something to his farewell that sounded suspiciously like “and don’t forget to do your homework!” even from this distance. Shiro headed in Keith’s direction, though he clearly had not yet spotted Keith sitting alone by the window.

This gave Keith further opportunity to admire Shiro’s sculpted body. 

As much as the uniform had tried to hide Shiro’s impressive bulk, in reality it accented his body like a gift. The collar was heavily starched so that just a few undone buttons at the top of the jacket exposed a length of neck and tease the curve of a collarbone. The yellow bands that marked his rank highlighted the impressive span of his shoulders while the belt at his waist showed off a narrow waist. The pants pulled just enough along the thighs that each step gave a clear impression of the thick corded muscles beneath the grey polyester. The pants pulled in the back to accommodate a round bottom, which meant that they also pulled in the front, giving Shiro a slight bulge that… Wait! 

No! No! Don’t go there. 

Keith turned an impossible shade of red. So red it was almost purple. 

He made a fidgeting movement to cope with his sudden distress at the turn of his thoughts. The movement attracted Shiro’s attention and he immediately began to move forward with more purposeful strides. 

His eyes lit up when he saw Keith, and even through Keith’s distress he recognized that it was a beautiful look on the man.

“H-hey Keith!” Shiro said happily. He dropped into the seat at Keith’s side without a thought, then stopped and threw Keith a sideways glance, “can I sit here?”

“It’s a bit too late for that,” Keith commented wryly. He mentally forced the blush from his face, completely missing the faint pinkness of Shiro’s cheeks at Keith’s gentle ribbing.

“Ahh, should I go?”

“What? No, stay,” Keith said, throwing a hand to Shiro’s arm to stop him from rising from his seat. His palm felt warm touching Shiro’s arm, and he squeezed the hard muscle reflexively. “I was only joking.”

Shiro sat back down in a flash. He jerked his leg violently as he sat and knocked his knee against the leg of the table. The table shook violently in response, knocking Shiro’s plastic cup of milk over into his salad.

“Shit!” Shiro cried, then “Shit!” again when he knocked his coffee over in his haste to grab his milk. 

The lid of his coffee cup prevented a great deal of damage, leaving only a small pool of black coffee at the centre of the small table. Shiro grabbed the cup in a frantic rush just the same, squeezing the poor thing hard enough that the lid then popped off, spilling more coffee down the side of Shiro’s mechanical hand. The force of the explosion splattered a few stinging-hot drops to Keith’s hand and cheek.

“Fuck,” Shiro muttered in a voice kept purposefully low so that the surrounding cadets couldn’t overhear. 

The whole ordeal only lasted a few seconds, but by the time everything had settled poor Shiro had a milky salad, a thoroughly coffeed table, and a steaming hand. His hair has somehow become frazzled in panic, and he looked so adorably overwrought that Keith couldn’t help but laugh.

“Here,” he offered Shiro the left over napkins from his own lunch.

Rather than take them, Shiro blushed a brighter shade of red and threw himself against the back of his chair with a defeated grunt. Keith chuckled at his antics.

“At least you didn’t burn your hand,” Keith offered sympathetically, mopping up the coffee himself while Shiro fidgeted with the lid. “That stuff’s hot.”

“Yeah,” Shiro agreed, then turned to Keith in such a rush Keith feared another coffee explosion. “Shit, did I get you?”

“Only a little,” Keith said, showing the drop of black coffee that had landed on the back of his hand. 

He lifted it quickly to his mouth and licked the small drop clean. 

When he looked up again, Shiro looked strange. His eyes were wide, pupils dark, and his worked his jaw like he had temporarily forgotten how to make sound. 

“Shiro?”

Keith watched Shiro’s eyes slide dazedly from Keith’s down to his chin, then over to his cheek. 

“Got you here, too,” Shiro said in a strange voice. He reached with his human hand to brush the back of a finger along the curve of Keith’s cheekbone. 

Keith’s heart raced suddenly like he had just run 100 laps, and he felt his cheeks heat in a way that had nothing to do with the spilled coffee. For a wild second he thought Shiro was going to offer for Keith to lick that drop too, and Keith felt his stomach churn and twist in a way it had never done before. 

The feeling was strong enough that it made Keith flinch and that was enough to break the strange moment between them. 

Shiro pulled back and began to pick awkwardly at his milk-soaked salad with his fork, and Keith turned to the side with a forced cough to cut some of the tension that was building in his chest. 

They sat in silence for a moment, watching Shiro’s fork pick and prod through the kale and spinach, hunting for the better-tasting vegetables that had sunk to the bottom with the milk.

“Think we should get you a spoon to eat that with?” Keith asked sardonically. Shiro began choking on an onion when he tried to laugh, so he just nodded his agreement instead.

They lapsed into an easy silence while Shiro attacked his milk salad and cold protein platter.

Well, Keith could safely say that he definitely felt something for Shiro. He was still hesitant to label it as attraction, but it was clear even from those few touches to his arm, and Shiro’s quick graze along his cheek, that the older man definitely had an affect on him. 

He had felt light enough to float away when Shiro’s finger had dragged along the curve of his cheek. The touch had only been for a second, but the aftereffect had lasted much longer. And the feel of Shiro’s body under Keith’s hands had been… nice. It was nice. 

Terrifying, still, but nice. 

It was a strange contradiction, and definitely something Keith would have to consider in greater detail at another time. But so far, his experiment seemed to be yielding results, so that was at least something. 

Keith was interrupted from his thoughts by Allura and Lance approaching their table hand in hand. It was painfully awkward to watch their approach, as they had to move single-file through the maze of tables and chairs, Allura’s hand held awkwardly behind her back while Lance stretched awkwardly forward like he was being pulled on a leash. 

“Shiro, Keith!” Allura greeted warmly once they’d reached the table, “Just who I was looking to see.”

Shiro and Keith exchanged dry looks: neither of them had overlooked the sappy, blushing looks on Lance and Allura’s faces. That look on Lance’s face alone was a clear sign of a trap, but it was even worse to see it mirrored on Allura’s. 

“As you know, next month marks the 2 year anniversary of the battle for Earth,” Allura started. Keith’s stomach dropped uncomfortably; Allura was speaking as if she were trying to sell something, which could not be good.

“Yes,” Shiro prompted, because Allura seemed to be waiting for a response before continuing.

“And you know how the garrison is planning several events around the world as part of the celebrations?”

“Yes,” Shiro said again, this time his voice a little flatter.

“And you know that I’ve been pushing to have a gala evening in the Atlas with the Earth leaders and some visiting dignitaries?”

Keith, in fact, did not know that, but his stomach sank a bit lower at the news.

“Yes,” Shiro said again, dread fully audible in his voice now.

“Well my request was approved! We’re having an evening amongst the stars in the Atlas! We’ll fly just within orbit and traverse the globe, spreading joy and hope across the world!” Allura’s voice was breathless with wonder. Lance stood mutely behind her, watching her speak with hearts visible in his eyes. 

“Great.” Shiro’s lack of enthusiasm was an echo of Keith’s inner thoughts. 

“Isn’t it?” Allura pressed on, either not noticing or not acknowledging Shiro’s disinterest. “Now, as the paladins and the captain of Voltron, we’re going to have to lead the evening with some speeches and a dance.”

Keith’s lack of enthusiasm turned suddenly into a distinct aversion for this entire plan. “Dance?!”

“Yes, Keith,” Allura said in a tone that broke no discussion. Over her shoulder he could see Lance nodding along like a fool. “You have to dance. And that’s why I’m here, actually. Because the whole thing will likely be televised, so it will literally be the whole world watching…”

“Great!” Keith muttered sarcastically, earning himself a stern look from Allura.

“… so Lance has kindly offered to teach us all a simple dance that we can all do to start off the night.”

Allura paused then, waiting for a rush of gratitude that was not forthcoming.

Keith’s response was simple. “No.”

“You can’t say no, Keith. It’s already planned. It’s happening.”

“No. I’m not dancing, and I’m definitely not taking dance lessons from Dopey McGee, here.” He hooked a thumb over Allura’s shoulder to where Lance was standing, obviously distracted, making kissing faces at the back of her head. 

Allura rolled her eyes and sighed, but then she quickly returned to Keith. “You are dancing, Keith, whether you like it or not. Of course, I can’t force you to take dancing lessons…”

“No, you can’t,” Keith agreed, crossing his arms like he won that part of the argument.

“… so if you want to go ahead and make a fool out of yourself at the gala, in front of the entire world, and several hundred visiting ambassadors, then that’s your prerogative.”  
Keith’s expression fell. Damn, but she was right. 

Keith turned to Shiro, his last hope. It appeared to be thin hope, judging by the way Shiro was suddenly inspecting his milky salad and shifting uncomfortably in his chair.

He cleared his throat, casting a sheepish glance to Keith, before saying, “I, uh, already know how to dance, actually. So…” 

Shiro’s eyes shot quickly over to look at Keith’s then stopped as if caught by Keith’s desperate expression. “… uh… but, I mean, i-it’s been years since I’ve danced. I could probably use the lessons. You know, so I match you guys…” Shiro began to babble as Keith’s eyes visibly softened with relief. “… I don’t want to look weird… you know, if I don’t, uh, match…”

At least, if Shiro would be there, it wouldn’t be so bad. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

Dances lessons were that bad. In fact, they were worse. 

So exponentially worse than anything Keith could have predicted that he doubted even Pidge would be able to run the figures on it. 

Not only was Lance a boastful, preening, and useless dance instructor, but also everyone seemed to be able to pick up the steps with ease. Keith was still struggling with a “simple two-step,” his arms tired from hours spent practicing, hugging empty air close and shuffling in time to the music, while everyone else was mastering a waltz and Lance and Allura had moved on to a complicated salsa. Lance was even hinting at teaching Allura a tango.

It was infuriating, and the training rooms were running out of punching bags to help him deal with his frustrations. 

The gala evening was now only 8 days away, but still Keith was struggling. He was the first to arrive to their bi-nightly lessons and the last to leave, and he practiced alone in his room every day. 

No matter what he did or how much he practiced, he wasn’t getting it. Lance’s repeated instruction of “quick-quick, slow – slow” meant nothing to him, though each time he heard it he felt closer and closer to all-out violence. 

At the moment, Pidge, Shiro, Shay, and Hunk were waltzing passably in small circles while Lance and Allura toured the room in an elaborate dance. While he moved, Lance called out instructions. Helpful instructions: like, “no Keith;” and “No, no, no, move with the music;” and “do you even hear the music, Keith? Can you hear it?”

“How can I hear the music if all I can hear is you yelling at me?” Keith finally screamed. He had just enough self control left to stomp away and punch the wall rather hurting any others (Lance) present. 

“Keith!” a jumble of different voices called his name at the same time, each with their own degree of surprise and disappointment. 

Keith did not respond. He kept his fist curled against the wall and leaned forward, eyes closed, to rest his forehead against the cool drywall. He took several deep breaths: in through the nose, out through the mouth.

“Hey guys, why don’t we clear out for the night,” Hunk suggested. 

Nobody answered, but someone turned the music off, and everyone grabbed their things and shuffled off.

Keith waited until they had all left, and then waited a little longer until the crux of his anger had dissipated. 

When he finally turned, Keith stopped himself short to see Shiro standing, waiting, at the side of the room beside the music box. 

Shiro inspected Keith for a moment, like he was gauging the irritation levels left, and then he flicked the music back on and moved forwards.

Keith followed wordlessly until they were standing face to face in the centre of the room.

“You’re making it more complicated for yourself,” Shiro said softly, his eyes crinkled in the corners from his soft smile.

The last of Keith’s anger melted at the sight, and he said, rather petulantly, “Ya, well, Lance being Lance doesn’t help things.”

Shiro chuckled softly, “No, I guess not.” Shiro reached for Keith’s hands, but stopped with his fingers just barely brushing along the back of one wrist, “Did you want to lead?”

Keith’s laugh was short and bitter, “I can’t lead or follow, so it makes no difference to me.”

Shiro considered for a moment, his fingers still grazing lightly against Keith’s skin. Then he grabbed each wrist and pulled Keith forward to settle his hands on Shiro’s waist. “Leading’s easier. You move forward, not backward.”

“O-ok.”

They were not that close, not really. They had been closer so many countless times, this should not be any different. But this time Keith could feel the movement of Shiro’s body through the cotton of his workout shirt, could feel the slow intake of breath expanding his stomach. This time he could feel a steady tremor of excitement race along his arms and all the way down to his toes. This time he could feel the gentle weight of Shiro’s arms as they wound around his neck, grounding him and keeping him from flying away from his sudden weightlessness.

Shiro was more disorienting than breaking through the atmosphere, and Keith was becoming addicted to the high.

Shiro licked his lips before he spoke. “Do you feel the beat? Don’t listen to it, just feel it out. Here.” A gentle press along his shoulders and then Keith was swaying in time with the music, his motions in sync with Shiro’s.

Keith shut his eyes to concentrate on the beat of his body’s movements rather than the beat of his heart.

“One two, one two, one two,” he muttered to himself, trying to keep time with the music.

“That’s it,” Shiro encouraged, his voice sounding softer now that Keith’s eyes were closed. “But don’t count to two. Count to six.”

“But it’s a two-step.”

Keith furrowed his brow in confusion, then opened his eyes to see Shiro looking at him with a soft, unguarded look that stole Keith’s breath.

“That’s just what it’s called. You do two fast, two slow. One-two, three – four, five – six. Get it?”

“Not entirely.”

“Here,” Shiro’s grip on his shoulders changed and he pulled Keith closer. He tilted his head down to look at their feet and Keith did the same.

He demonstrated again and again, counting out loud until Keith could count along and then mimic his steps. 

“There you go! Good,” Shiro praised as the movement began to come more naturally to Keith along with the beat of the music. “Now, let’s try it moving around the room.”

“No,” Keith said with a hint of fear. His fingers instinctively squeezed at Shiro’s sides, drawing them fractionally closer. It was a dumb move because it distracted Keith from his dance and messed up his steps. 

“You can do it, Keith,” Shiro insisted, helping him get back on beat. “Think of dancing like fighting. You need your footwork and your balance, and you have to listen to what your opponent – partner, in this case – tells you with their body.”

Keith didn’t need any reminders of Shiro’s body. There was only a scant few inches between them now, they were close enough that Keith was starting to feel the warmth of Shiro’s body through the fabric of his own shirt.

But the explanation did make sense. He knew how to read Shiro’s moves in a fight, knew to anticipate his steps, dodge his punches. He hadn’t thought that that skill could be transferable to anything else, but maybe it was.

“Keep your hands steady on my sides, you need them to tell me where to go.”

Keith nodded and began to move forward, keeping his steps in time with the beat as best he could. He fumbled his footing almost immediately, stepping on Shiro’s feet with a novice’s precision.

“It’s ok, just find the beat again, you got this.”

They moved around the room. Their movements were halted and unsure, and Keith stepped on Shiro a few more times for good measure, but after a few minutes he began to relax into it and the movement came more naturally.

“There, see?” Shiro asked proudly. “And try not to run me into anything. I need to trust you, here,” he joked.

“You can trust me.”

Keith’s words were low and solemn. His eyes flickered up from the floor to see that Shiro was staring hard at him.

“I always trust you,” Shiro said with the softest of smiles. 

Keith suddenly felt the need to say something, but he didn’t know what. It was like there was something desperately important that he had to tell Shiro right this instant, but he couldn’t think of a thing to say. 

“Keith…”

“Shiro…”

They laughed then, breaking eye contact to blush away from each other. 

Keith moved forward, continuing the dance. He stepped farther than he meant, farther than Shiro had stepped back, which shortened the distance between them by another inch.  
Keith’s forehead slid along the line of Shiro’s jaw, and rather than correct his mistake, Keith shifted his grip on Shiro’s waist to hold him closer. 

It only took a moment for Shiro to relax into the new closeness, tilting his head over Keith’s like he was resting on Keith’s black mop of hair. 

Tucked under Shiro like this gave Keith a sense of calm and protection that he hardly recognized in himself. It was like the rest of the world had slipped away. It made his mind linger over everything Shiro meant to him, everything Shiro had ever done for him.

“You know,” Keith started, speaking slow like he was choosing his words, though he was doing no such things. These words were flowing from him completely unprompted, “how you used to say that we should never take anyone for granted?” Keith tilted his head, letting his forehead draw lightly along the line of Shiro’s jaw and feeling a light press in return. “You said you’d never do it again because you’ve lost so many people, you can’t bear to do it to anyone else.”

Shiro pressed more firmly against Keith, turning to touch his cheek to the top of Keith’s head. “I remember,” his voice was hardly more than a whisper, and it was reverent and just a little curious. He couldn’t see where Keith was going with this.

Neither could Keith. He was expressing a thought he had had several times over the last few years, one that had returned to him often in the years following Shiro’s return from the astral plain. Though he dwelt on it more than he would like to admit, he had no idea how to put it in words. It was so simple, but as is often the case it is the simplest ideas that are the hardest to convey.

The thought now sat in Keith like a bubble of emotion caught in his chest and he could not stop until he explained it as best he could.

“You should take me for granted.”

“What?” Shiro spoke on a gasp, sounding shocked and confused, and maybe a little hurt. He pulled back, but Keith gripped him even closer, bending his head to rest against Shiro’s chest.

He could hear his heartbeat like this, and every breath.

“I want you to take me for granted, Shiro, because I’m always going to be here for you. There’s no where you could go, nothing you could do, that could ever keep me from you. Whatever you need, whatever the distance. I’ll be there.”

Though Shiro had stiffened in his arms, he melted as Keith continued to speak. 

“Keith…”

“Please, Shiro.”

Shiro could not deny the sincerity of Keith’s words. Keith had travelled farther and done more for one man than anyone else in the universe could dare dream of. He had chased Shiro through garrison research facilities, through Galra armies, through infinite space, and even through the veil of death. Any time Shiro might have lost hope, he had only to glance behind and there was Keith. If Shiro was Keith’s guiding light in the darkness, then Keith was Shiro’s bright light of day, illuminating all that was beautiful and secure.  
Just the thought of all that Keith meant to him, all that Keith was telling him, robbed Shiro of his breath. 

“Keith…” his voice was not even a whisper, just the ghost of a sigh that Keith could feel against his dark hair.

“I want you to know that I’ll always be there for you, I want you to expect me to be at your side when you need me…”

“Keith…” Shiro was louder this time, his voice wavering with unsaid emotion.

But Keith pressed on, “Say it, Shiro…”

Suddenly, Shiro pulled back, and for an agonizing moment Keith thought he was pulling away.

But then there were hands on his cheeks. 

Then his face was tilted up.

Then Shiro’s lips descended on Keith’s and time stopped for a small eternity.

The kiss was chaste and it was sweet. But it burned with a passion that lit Keith’s soul and altered his entire being. 

Somewhere in the universe there was a supernova burning with unimaginable heat, and its blaze paled in comparison to the one that scorched through Keith’s soul the moment Shiro’s lips met his.

They pulled back with a simultaneous gasp and gripped each other like each was the only thing keeping the other afloat. 

“I promise, Keith,” Shiro said, still close enough that Keith could feel his own name dart across Shiro’s lips. 

For the briefest of moments, Keith opened his mouth to ask what had happened, what this meant, just: what. Then it occurred to Keith that maybe he had no idea what romantic love actually felt like. And maybe this had been it all along.

This longing, protective, unassuming, unrelenting fire for Shiro that had been raging in his chest since he was 14 years old: maybe that had been love all along.

He could see Shiro’s eyes brimming with emotion, looking at Keith with stars in his eyes.

Those stars lost their shine when Keith began to laugh. 

“I’m an idiot!” Keith cried. He dropped his head to Shiro’s shoulder and shook it ruefully.

“Keith, wha-?”

“Shut up for a second, Shiro.” 

Granted, it was not the most romantic thing Keith could have said moments after realizing that his best friend was the love of his life and probably had been for as long as he’s known him. 

“I’m so stupid,” he said, still shaking his head, “how did I not know?”

“Keith?” Shiro’s voice was laced with concern now, his fingers curled protectively around Keith’s neck.

Keith pulled back and looked deep into Shiro’s grey eyes. “I love you.”

A thousand emotions swam through Shiro’s eyes, and Keith watched them all pass in the blink of an eye. He knew Shiro was seeing the same display in his own eyes. 

Keith laughed again, “I love you, and I didn’t even know it.”

“Did… did you just realize now?”

“Mmhmm,” Keith hummed. He pulled Shiro back into his arms, pressing into tight hug and resting his head along Shiro’s chest. “I’ve always felt it. I just didn’t realize what it was until I said it out loud.”

Keith stepped back again, suddenly worried, “That’s ok, isn’t it?” 

Shiro’s smile is iridescent and full of understanding. “It’s more than ok. I didn’t realize myself until a few months ago.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Keith settled back against Shiro’s chest. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

Shiro held him tighter in lieu of a response.

It was only then that Keith realized they were still dancing. It was no longer a two-step. It was just a slow, swaying, shuffling in a small circle in time with the music. But still, it was dancing.

And now, with everywhere they had been, everything they had seen – with all of the entire universe at their feet, there was no where Keith would rather be.


	2. Epilogue: The Gala

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Please note the rating has changed to Explicit*
> 
> Shiro and Keith get closer in their relationship. Some fun and some romance at the Gala celebrating Earth's victory over Sendak. Also lots of good sexy times!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I'm showing up hours late to a party i started, but I'm finally here with the epilogue!
> 
> I tell you, this is the last time I publish something without having it already finished. I'm not here for that pressure!
> 
> I hope you like it!

Keith stood quickly from his stretched out position on the gym floormats when he saw Shiro enter the room. Though he saw Shiro’s eyes light up at the sight of him, Keith grit his teeth and began to quickly unravel the sports tape from his hands. 

“You leaving?” Shiro asked, standing close, not bothering to hide the disappointment in his voice.

Keith nodded and kept his eyes on the ground.

He needed strict control to keep his eyes from wandering the tight lines of Shiro’s workout attire. 

“That’s too bad,” Shiro said, “I was hoping for the chance to spar. We haven’t had a good work out in days.”

That was on purpose.

Shiro and Keith had been banned from going to the gym together. Banned for life.

It was an unofficial ban – one Keith had self-imposed and he had yet to inform Shiro, but that was all the more reason to follow it strictly. They were still in the middle of a war. Hell! They were the leaders in this war. If they couldn’t keep to their own rules, the whole world would be in deep shit.

That was what Keith told himself as he shrugged out from Shiro’s light grip on his shoulder and bid him a hasty goodbye.

Keith’s retreat was swift, leaving himself no room for doubts, and leaving Shiro no chance to bat his eyes and convince Keith to stay.

And it would not be hard for Shiro to convince Keith to stay.

It had not yet been a full week since their confession after dance practice and already Keith was wrapped around Shiro’s fingers. He could not resist. He couldn’t even begin to want to resist. 

Keith had always been ready and willing to lay down his life for Shiro, and now he was more than willing to lay down everything else for the beautiful man. Even his body. Scratch that: especially his body. 

Those flames of passion that had eluded Keith for so long had been found hiding in the careful protection of Shiro’s chest the whole time. And there was no safer place they could have been.

Shiro had long been Keith’s home and his family when Keith needed one most, but now he was so much more. The strange part was, that in a lot of ways, nothing had changed. Shiro was still Keith’s shelter and port in the storm, his guiding light, his friend, his family, his mentor, his most trusted confidante, and any infinite number of other titles. Everything now was exactly the same as before, except that it was overlaid with a new depth of meaning and understanding. The love Keith had always felt was so much richer and multidimensional that he could have ever imagined. 

It was beautiful and consuming.

The only true newness to the situation was a desperation that Keith had never felt before in his life. 

Keith might have touched on passion before, he might have tried to borrow and reflect another’s passion back to them to try and force physical connection in the hopes it would answer some question he couldn’t define. Now, what Keith felt was so far removed from those awkward, competitive, wrestling matches disguised as romance that Keith had played with Acxa. 

Keith burned under Shiro’s touch. It sparked immediately from just a glance or a sound, and it flared hot.

It was like Keith and Acxa had been trying to light a fire with damp wood, and Shiro just stepped in and casually pointed out that they were sitting in an active volcano. 

And that was not meant as any comment against Acxa. Truly, Keith had always known the problem was his own; Acxa is lovely and she never deserved the lukewarm romance Keith had tried to feed her. But Keith couldn’t help himself from making the comparison. He had struggled with Acxa for months only to end with frustration, disappointment, and a familiar but unhealthy portion of self-hatred. Now, in a handful of days, Keith had discovered things about himself he’d never known before, things he couldn’t believe he’d ever tried to deny.

Things like Shiro’s ass and its infinite perfections. 

It was beautiful. Magnificent. Illustrious.

It made Keith want to compose and that was not something he had _ever_ in his life considered. 

Inside him, there was an ode to each of Shiro’s battle scars, there was a sonnet to his lips and another for his hair, there was a symphony for Shiro’s eyes. Keith was not a man of words, or poetry, or even music; he was a man of action, and so he wrote his poems and songs into Shiro’s flesh with his tongue, pressed them into Shiro’s skin with his lips. 

He couldn’t contain it. The urge to touch Shiro buzzed like an electric current beneath Keith’s skin. It was torture to ignore it in meetings and public spaces, but if Keith gave in, even a little, it became impossible to deny.

Thus, he had banned them from the gym.

Later, Keith wrapped himself around Shiro the moment his bedroom door slid open and Shiro stepped into Keith’s room, looking like a meal in his gym clothes and smelling his sin.

“Keith!” Shiro laughed around Keith’s lips. He dropped his gym bag with a loud thump so he could support the leg Keith was trying to hook around his hips. 

They went from doorway to bed in less than 30 seconds.

“I thought you liked working out with me?” Shiro asked casually while he boxed Keith down against the mattress with his pelvis. 

“Do,” Keith managed around his wild kisses. “Like it too much.” He groaned and dug his heels into the bed, pushing himself back further. He dragged Shiro along behind with two fingers curled through the arm of Shiro’s tank top. 

“ _Too_ much, huh?” Shiro’s mouth was hot along Keith’s neck. “Sounds like a real problem.” His mock seriousness was as thrilling as the tease of teeth along Keith’s neckline.

“It is,” Keith agreed on a sigh. He arched his hips up to meet Shiro’s and they moved a little farther up the bed. 

His fingers gripped around fistfuls of Shiro’s shirt, and he figured that while he was there he might as well help Shiro out of it. 

Shiro shook out his sweat-damp silver hair as Keith tossed away his shirt and set his palms into the muscle of Shiro’s shoulder, kneading lightly. 

“We’ll have to find some other way to work out together,” Shiro suggested huskily. He leaned in to speak directly into Keith’s ear, and followed it up by drawing his tongue along the edge of cartilage. “Huh?” He cupped Keith’s ass then drew his hand along his leg until he could lift and push it over his hips.

“Sounds good.” Keith’s voice stuttered so that his words came out broken and halting. He drew Shiro closer, dragging sharp nails lightly over his shoulder blades. Then he pushed Shiro tighter against him, using his heel. 

It looked as if Shiro was about to say something else, something teasing, but Keith stopped him with a distracting kiss. 

When Shiro tried to pull back a moment later, Keith clung tight so as not to disturb the hungry seal of their mouths.

Spilling out of their clothes was a difficult affair because Keith refused to give Shiro space to think or breath even as his hands pawed hungrily at the frustratingly tight fabric. In the end, Shiro had to play dirty, using his weight to stretch Keith out on the bed and pinning his wrists to the bed with the full force of his detached arm. Keith went down willingly, and his protest of Shiro’s hold on his was only half-hearted. 

“You look good like that,” Shiro hummed, pressing his mouth to the hard lines of Keith’s abs. He hooked a thumb into the waist of Keith’s shorts, took the other side between his teeth, and pulled.

Keith rolled his hips forward at the sight.

“Fuck! Shiro!”

Could there be any sight more stunning?

Yes. Always.

Every glimpse of Shiro was more stunning than the last, though right now Shiro was looking particularly sexy.

Shiro pressed his cheek into Keith’s hardness with a groan that somehow echoed out of Keith. 

The moment Shiro let up his grip on Keith’s wrists he was set upon in a flurry of limbs, and fingers, and lips. Teeth and tongue followed shortly after and soon Keith had Shiro exactly where he wanted him; straddled between his legs and gasping at the smooth motion of his hips. 

Keith wanted him just like this. Wanted Shiro pumping hard inside him, helpless to the powerful churn of Keith’s legs as he rode him for their mutual pleasure. But Keith was impatient, and there wasn’t time for the careful prepping that Shiro insisted on. 

He amused himself with the idea of riding Shiro for a time, until the bright fires in Shiro’s eyes were smoldering with unabashed pleasure. Then he slipped back and took Shiro apart with his mouth. 

Shiro huffed and sighed and panted Keith’s name until it lost all meaning, and then he broke on a garbled cry and spilled hot down Keith’s throat. 

Keith let himself be pulled up onto Shiro’s chest and happily accepted the slew of breathless kisses that Shiro crowned across his forehead. 

“What did I do to deserve you?” Shiro asked with such wonder it made Keith blush.

“You know exactly what you did,” Keith said, almost like an accusation. The tender look in Shiro’s eye softened him, and he melted over Shiro’s chest, pressing his ear over Shiro’s heart. “You gave me my life, and then you gave me the world.”

“Keith…” Shiro said softly, his voice in whisper. 

Keith shook his head to Shiro’s silent request. He couldn’t look him in the eye, couldn’t drag himself away from the steady thrum of the heartbeat under his cheek. 

He felt the soft press of Shiro’s lips ghosting over his forehead, and he knew that something sappy and heart-wrenching was coming. But it was too much. Keith felt too much.

Every moment with Shiro was a treasure, and Keith was over-full with love and emotion. He couldn’t take any more.

So he stole whatever words Shiro had in mind off his lips with a hard kiss and rolled them until Shiro was bearing down over him in the bed. Keith took Shiro’s hand in his own and guided it down his body to grasp. 

Keith was still hard and ready. He was always hard and ready when it came to Shiro, but now especially. Shiro smiled into their kiss as he began to move his hand.

They adjusted together until their hips were flush and Shiro’s weight was pressing half of Keith’s body into the bed. Keith liked having the weight of Shiro above him, it was like a security blanket. The only thing better was draping himself over Shiro’s chest like a shield, protecting Shiro from anything that might come their way.

After years and years of friendship, Shiro could read Keith like no one else. He waited until Keith was liquid and pliant in his hands before he nuzzled his nose into the long waves of black hair.

“You gave me the universe,” Shiro said softly. “I see it reflected in your eyes when you look at me. I taste it in your breath when you lie under me. I hear it in your voice every time you say my name.”

“Shi-iro…” Keith was weak to this kind of attack. He could feel his emotions bubbling up in time with the pressure of his gut. If he was over-filled before, now he was over-flowing. 

“Just like that.” Shiro nipped lightly along the curve of Keith’s ear. “You’re my universe, Keith. You.”

Keith couldn’t repress the tears that dropped from his eyes like falling stars. He couldn’t hold this much love in him. 

He clung to Shiro so tight his arms shook from the effort. His nails dug into the meat of Shiro’s shoulder. 

He couldn’t hear himself cry out his love, but he felt it deep within him, clawing out through his throat.

“I love you too, Keith,” Shiro said with a gentle press of their lips once Keith came back to himself.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Keith had been forced to leave the Atlas so that he could walk back in. Allura had painstakingly explained it to him at least a dozen times, but he still didn’t get it. He had to get dressed in the Atlas, leave it, just to walk back in while the cameras snap away around him. It was inane. 

He had fought Allura tooth and nail on it (well… he had fought her on everything to do with this gala, really), even going so far as to recruit Kolivan to his cause, but the final verdict had been “this is what’s happening Keith. You can join us willingly, or you can join us forcefully.”

The gala took place in the observation deck. Keith had never been to a prom, but he had seen plenty in movies, back when movies were a part of his life. He expected the room to look something like the movies, but this looked nothing like that.

Stars hung in the air. Not just the stars, but a full working cosmos, complete with swirling galaxies and racing comets. They swirled above their heads in a delicate dance, and some moved slow through the gathered crowds and bounced harmlessly against the guests. 

Pidge must have been strong-armed into helping with the decorating because there was no way anyone else had the ability to program a hologram like this. Not one so intricate, so accurate, so delicate, yet intelligent enough to reorganize itself under the gravity of the random moving bodies of the guests.

Shiro whistled a short, impressed note. “That girl is going to break the code for AI any day now,” he said out of the side of his mouth.

Keith snorted. “Better start preparing for the robot uprising.”

“Heh. Get ready to bow to our 5 foot overlord.”

The smirk wiped off Shiro’s face in an instant as a small hand clapped hard on the middle of his back. “Who’s an overlord now?”

Shiro froze, but Keith burst into laughter and Pidge wiggled her eyebrows at the two of them. 

“I wouldn’t worry,” Pidge said reassuringly, “I won’t make you bow to me when I’m Supreme Overlord of Everything.” She waited a beat for the tension in Shiro’s shoulders to ease, then added, “But you will wear ridiculous outfits and wait on me hand and foot.” She strode off before her statement could sink in.

“That girl’s a menace,” Shiro muttered.

“Truly, evil” Keith agreed, though the ring of supressed laughter wouldn’t leave his tone. 

They slipped into the crowds and made nice with the political leaders of this and all surrounding worlds. Keith stayed close to Shiro as much as possible, taking strength from the random bump of their hips when Shiro shifted his weight, or the stray touch to Keith’s arm as they navigated the mass of people. 

The dignitaries and military personnel milled about for a long time before the speeches started. Keith’s speech was succinct, having been written by Keith, edited by Kolivan, and proofed by Krolia. 

Shiro’s speech followed, and his was long and flowing. It was almost music, or poetry. He started low, in soft tones, speaking about the past and the hardships they’d faced, not just Earth, but all planets. Then he built it up, and he spoke about perseverance, unity, and the efforts to rebuild the universe. Then he crescendoed into his heavy hitter: hope. He spoke of the strength of hope, and the bonds of love, and the power of friendship. 

The change in the room was palpable, moving with him through his emotions until they landed on a note of certain triumph.

It felt, in that moment, as if they could defeat the Galra hordes right then and there; and, checking the screens that lined one wall, it seemed as though the trillions of people watching on Earth and throughout space felt the same.

After the speeches, there was only 10 minutes of rest while the philharmonic celestial orchestra returned to their places before the dancing was to start. AKA: Keith’s doom.

There had been many lengthy conversations leading up to this over who would open the dance. Whether Allura should go first, as princess of Altea; whether Shiro should go first, as captain of the Atlas; whether it should be Keith, as leader of Voltron (an idea quashed immediately after the first 5 minutes of their dance lessons); or whether they should all start as one group. 

They decided that Keith’s hideous dancing would be hidden best en masse and agreed to form a circle of 5 with their partners. The only thing about that was that Shiro and Keith never told the others they would be dancing together. They hadn’t really gotten around to telling anyone about the change in their relationship, except for Krolia and that Curtis guy Shiro had initially asked to the gala. (There had been something satisfying about watching the guy’s short-lived crush die before Keith’s eyes when Shiro sat him down to explain the situation and why he could no longer be Shiro’s dance partner.)

At Allura’s signal they all stepped hand in hand onto the dance floor, and Keith couldn’t even try to hide his smirk as he took in everyone’s expressions. 

The paladins were a mix of surprised and excited, though Pidge and Matt had an air of two who had just settled a bet and Matt owed a great deal of money. Lance looked absolutely stunned, and Allura did a marvelous job of keeping his chin from dragging the ground as she pulled him into place. 

The rest of the room murmured at the sight of the Atlas captain and Voltron leader striding together into their place on the dance floor.

Keith did his best to block out the room as they stepped into position. He took a deep breath.

“Ready?” Shiro asked, his arm firm over Keith’s shoulder, his finger curling gently around his neck. 

“Only because you’re here,” Keith said honestly.

The smile Shiro gave him at that made the room truly disappear. The music began, and even though Keith was technically the one leading them, he let himself get swept away in Shiro’s arms. He could feel the eyes of the room on him but all he could see was Shiro, and he leaned into that feeling. They danced together through the starlight, lost in each other. 

Keith still tripped up a time or two, and more than once he tried to turn Shiro the wrong way only to have Shiro tug him back in line. 

The song lasted nearly 4 minutes. Once it was done, the room clapped with them and then the floor surged with dancers. Pidge and Matt immediately disbanded and disappeared into the crowd, followed soon after by Hunk and Shay. 

Shiro and Keith lingered on the floor, arms around each other. When the next song started up, Keith found himself pulling Shiro closer and moving along with the music once more. 

Shiro moved closer in response.

They danced long into the night, ignoring the world around them; entirely lost in one of their own. 

Eventually they tired of the dance and wound through the crowds towards the snack table. 

“So, this is a thing now, huh?” Hunk asked as they sidled up beside him with napkins full of hors d’oeuvres. “You two?” He gestured vaguely at the two of them with a shrimp. 

“Yup,” Keith said with a crisp p. 

“Cool.” He briefly met Shiro’s eyes, “Good for you, man.”

“Thanks.”

Keith turned just in time to see Shiro looking incredibly pleased with himself. It lit something deep inside Keith and he couldn’t help the sudden pull to tuck himself into Shiro’s side. Shiro’s arm settled easily over Keith, a warm and grounding presence in the middle of a swarming crowd of diplomats. 

“What the _what!?_ ” Lance’s voice thundered across the room and he stomped over, leaving Allura in conversation with Coran and Slav. “When this _this_ happen? _What_ is this? _How_ did this?”

He stopped at their little circle with a jerk, then flung forward suddenly as Pidge knocked him hard over the shoulder, appearing at his side out of nowhere.

“Calm down, Lance.”

“I just want to know,” Lance whined, rubbing his shoulder. 

“Well, ask it like a normal person. Like this,” Pidge turned and held out a hand towards Keith and Shiro. “How did this happen?” Her voice was eerily polite and Keith had to bite back a smirk at Lance’s dramatic eye roll.

Keith shrugged under Shiro’s arm and felt the weight of it shift over him. “I finally realized what I was feeling.”

Pidge narrowed her eyes when Keith avoided her gaze. “Yes, but how?”

It’s not that Keith was embarrassed about his slapdash confession after that particularly infuriating dance practice, but he knew that if Lance ever knew about it, Keith would never be able to live it down. Hearing that dancing brought them together, specifically Lance’s subpar dance lessons, would go straight to his head and the man would never let it rest again. He would take credit for sure. 

In an attempt to stem the obnoxiousness, Keith muttered his answer so low no one could hear it. 

Collectively, the whole group leaned in. Even Shiro leaned in, and he already knew how it went down.

“Mnn na.” Keith muttered again, this time rubbing his nose to keep prying eyes from reading his lips.

The group leaned closer still. When Keith gave no sign of repeating himself again, they turned to Shiro.

Shiro cracked almost immediately.

“It was after dance practice.”

Keith flinched the moment Shiro started speaking, and hid his face in Shiro’s chest as Lance started crooning and hooting and hollering. Luckily, his antics were loud enough to draw Allura to them, and when Keith finally poked his face out of hiding he saw Allura holding Lance down by his ear while he tried to explain why a paladin of Voltron was making a fool of her gala by acting like a complete zidderfop. Keith didn’t know what a zidderfop was, but Allura’s tone made it pretty clear it was not a good thing to be.

Once Lance was calm, the group slowly dragged all of the details out of Shiro and Keith, then they all took turns congratulating the two love birds. Conversation returned to normal, and they were joined shortly after by Romelle and Coran.

They stood together and talked for a long time after that, at times speaking over each other as 3 or 4 separate conversations ran on at once. 

Sometime during their chatting, Keith realized that Shiro’s arm over his shoulder meant he was down one hand, making it near to impossible for him to eat the small pile of snacks he had procured some time before.

With a furtive glance around them, Keith stole a grape from Shiro’s napkin and lifted it up to pop it quickly into his mouth.

The grin Shiro flashed the moment before his sharp teeth descended on the small fruit made the bottom of Keith’s stomach fall out. It might also have made his knees weak, but luckily he had a strong arm to keep him propped up.

After that, they made a game out of feeding Shiro without anyone noticing. They did a fair job, thought Keith thought that Hunk might have noticed after Shiro had been fed a particularly strange appetizer Keith had thought to be a crab puff. The face Shiro pulled was priceless, and the two of them shook together with silent laughter for a long time.

Once they neared the end of their supply of snacks, Keith grew bolder. He tossed one cheese cube into the air for Shiro to catch.

It arced perfectly, and would have landed dead on, if not for a passing holographic red dwarf star that knocked the cheese off it’s trajectory to land softly on Coran’s head. 

Everyone froze as the cheese landed, even those who didn’t know where it had come from. Coran was talking animatedly about some crazy stunt of his youth, and as he jostled about the cheese threatened to fall to the floor.

Instead, one good shake of his head lodged it more firmly into his luscious ginger locks, and everyone was left to stare in wonder at the oblivious cheese man.

Keith backed away from the scene slowly. 

“Going somewhere, number 4?” Coran asked, sounding curious.

“Uhh…. Shiro needs more cheese, I mean food. We’ll be right back.” 

Keith pushed Shiro away from the group and past the food table. They waited until they were all the way out into the hall before they burst into uncontrollable laughter. 

There were people milling in the halls, but they seem undeterred by the uproarious laughter of the two black paladins. 

It was still too early to depart for the night, so once they had calmed down enough they ventured back into the fray. 

They moved hand in hand through the crowds over to the large reinforced windows of the observation deck. The windows were massive, running from floor to ceiling and spanning the length of the expansive room. They were made to look out over the cosmos, but tonight they overlooked Earth. 

They were flying over Europe now, and it was night time. The lights of the world below them did a fair mimic of the night sky, filling their view with twinkling lights and often exploding with fireworks like supernovas bursting into new celestial bodies. 

Keith felt Shiro lean into him as they watched, and he tilted his head onto Shiro’s chest in response.

“Each light down there represents a whole community,” Shiro said, his voice low, just for Keith. “Someone with family, friends, and loved ones, and they’re all out there celebrating tonight. Celebrating this new world we’re creating; this new peace we’re fighting for.”

Keith curved himself against Shiro’s body as Shiro’s arms wrapped tight around him. They rocked slowly side to side as if lost in another dance.

“These people are why we do it. This is what we’re fighting for, we’re fighting to keep each of these lights lit, to keep all of these families together.”

The emotion behind Shiro’s soft words brought tears to Keith’s eyes.

Gently, Keith raised a hand to reach back and touch along the curve of Shiro’s cheek. 

“I’m fighting for you,” Keith said softly. He didn’t really mean to say it, it just came out, a product of the moment they had created. He felt the soft gasp of surprise run across the scar on his cheek, and Keith smiled. “I’ve always been fighting for you. All I’ve ever wanted is for you to be safe and happy. All I’ve ever done it to try and give that to you.”

“Keith,” Shiro said, so full of emotion it cracked his voice.

“I don’t mean I’d leave them all to burn, or that I don’t want peace and happiness for everyone.” Keith turned suddenly in Shiro’s arms, locking blue eyes with grey. His hand resettled against Shiro’s cheek and stroked it. “But I fight for you above all others.”

Maybe it was a little selfish, but it was true. Fighting for Shiro is what got Keith into this mess of a war, and it was sure as hell going to get him out of it. Keith would see it all through, he would fight every fight conceivable, just to have that look of worry cleared permanently from Shiro’s brow. Let Shiro fight for his ideals, and for every man, woman, alien, and child in the universe. Let Keith fight for Shiro and a future without fighting. 

Shiro’s lips were mere millimetres from Keith’s when they were reminded of the public nature of their romantic moment. Iverson stood nearby and had cleared his throat just before the two men could get swept away on their passion.

Keith dropped his head and scowled into Shiro’s jacket.

On a sudden inspiration, he led Shiro around the perimeter of the room. The walls around them were dull metal without any ornamentation except for uniform lines of rivets set into the wall at even intervals, connecting each sheet of metal to the next. These intersections had been transformed into something elegant by the use of long swaths of fabric hanging from the ceiling. The fabric was sheer grey but it was bunched together in such mass amounts as to become a solid colour. Where it caught the light, the fabric shone in a multicolour not unlike an oil slick, which made a very pretty effect when the swirling stars of Pidge’s false cosmos drew close. 

Keith did his best to feign disinterested curiosity in the fabric while he scouted for possible onlookers before he ducked behind the curtain and pulled Shiro in at his side.

Shiro laughed at Keith’s ingenuity, his eyes light and dancing in the close quarters and relative privacy of the curtains. The sweeping motion of the fabric as Keith pulled it around them seemed to have trapped some of Pidge’s stars in with them, and they cast just enough light to catch the gleaming in Shiro’s eyes.

“You’re beautiful,” Keith whispered, overcome by that simple truth. 

The look in Shiro’s eye told Keith that Shiro felt the same, but there was no more time for words. 

Their kiss started soul-shattering only got better. It filled Keith with a storm of emotion that quickly swept through him, leaving only heat in its wake. 

His mouth fit perfectly over Shiro’s as Keith pressed him back against the wall. Their tongues picked up their earlier dance, moving in tandem to music only they could hear. 

This was everything Keith had ever wanted, even when he didn’t know he wanted it. It thrilled him, now, to know it was all his. Shiro was his: publicly his. There would be no going back or giving up, not now or ever.

“I love you.” He did his best to say the words without breaking the kiss, so it came out a little garbled, but Shiro understood. He gave his own garbled response back, wrapped around a moan. 

Keith pushed Shiro solidly back into the wall, feeling every inch of their bodies mould together. He said it again, then once more because he didn’t think he could say it enough. 

There were so many things he wanted to say, but not enough words in the universe to capture it all. He wanted to tell Shiro how beautiful he was, and how strong. He wanted to begin to explain all that he felt for the man, all that he had felt before, and all that he would feel for forever and a day. He wanted to share everything that Shiro made him feel; how he had opened Keith up to all the wonders of the universe; how he had picked up a lost soul and given it direction; how he had made Keith feel secure in a way he never thought he would be able to feel.

He wanted to say it all, but the worlds failed him, so he said the only thing he could: “I love you, Shiro.”

Keith’s voice cracked with emotions, and his eyes started to fill with tears. 

There was no space for Shiro to pull back, so a firm but gentle hand pushed Keith back just far enough for Shiro to inspect him.

“Hey, hey, Keith. What’s wrong?” Shiro wiped at Keith’s tears with his thumbs. His forehead was furrowed with concern, and his eyes danced across Keith’s face, looking for a sign to explain his sudden distress.

“I-I-I just…” Keith began to cry in earnest under Shiro’s gaze. He still couldn’t find any of the words to describe the depth of his love for Shiro. “Love you so much… and… and I can’t… you don’t even know…”

Shiro hushed Keith and drew him into a tight hug. “I do know,” he whispered into Keith’s hair. “Baby, I do know. I feel it too. I was so blind for so long, but now I see…” Shiro’s voice grew thick as he spoke, and soon enough there were fat tears dropping on Keith’s head. “I love you so much, Keith.”

Now they were both crying and shaking together. Keith huffed a small laugh around his tears and nuzzled into Shiro’s arms.

“Can we get out of here now?” he asked with a sniff.

Shiro looked past Keith as if he were able to see through the curtains that hid them. “We might be stuck here all night. We’re a bit of a mess.” He laughed and pet down some of the flyaway hairs that had pulled out of Keith’s low ponytail. 

Keith looked thoughtful for a moment and then stepped back with a proud grin. He whistled loudly and without warning, but offered no explanation.

From outside their makeshift cocoon, they heard someone ask “did those curtains just whistle?”

Before their giggles could give them away, the edge of the curtains pulled aside and Kosmo poked his head in expectantly.

“Good boy,” Keith praised, scratching the wolf’s ears quickly before wrapping a firm arm around Shiro’s waist. “Take us home, boy.” 

In a flash they were standing in Keith’s bedroom. Kosmo went so far as to drop them at the foot of the bed before he shuffled off and blinked out of the room. 

The room was dark, but they didn’t need to see. They could feel the strong lines of each other’s bodies and the warmth radiating between them. Their mouths clashed together with a passion that rivalled the depth of emotions coursing between them. Heat rose between them with each passing second and soon their kisses were interrupted by moans.

It was almost a waste that Keith couldn’t admire Shiro slowly pulling out of his captain’s uniform, but he made up for it by sliding his hands beneath the heavy jacket fabric and feeling the smooth, powerful muscles of Shiro’s chest. His nipples were already hard beneath Keith’s fingers, and playing with them made Shiro’s breath hitch audibly in his throat. 

“You like that?” Keith asked, rubbing them again through the fabric before dragging his hands slowly up over Shiro’s shoulders and easing the jacket off. Shiro moaned his response. 

Shiro’s flesh hand had dropped to the side to allow the jacket to fall to the floor, and the moment it was free from its sleeve the hand retuned to Keith’s lower back, drawing him close.

Keith’s dropped his attention immediately back to Shiro’s chest. He cupped his hands over Shiro’s impossibly large pecs and kneaded them, his thumbs catching on Shiro’s nipples every so often. His hands didn’t stop as Keith leaned forward and took the edge of Shiro’s shirt between his teeth. With a twist of his head, Keith pulled the first button free, then he leaned down to the next one.

“Christ, Keith,” Shiro gasped when he realized what Keith was doing. 

Keith kept going until the shirt was completely undone, then he slid his fingers along the smooth skin underneath and began to bite at Shiro’s fly. He undid Shiro’s pants with an eager mouth and descended over Shiro’s erection while his hands pushed Shiro’s pants down to his ankles.

“Christ, Keith,” Shiro repeated. His flesh hand held Keith in place by his hair. The other hand drifted down Keith’s body and began stripping him, his fingers leaving cool touches along Keith’s skin that burned with desire.

“-iro,” Keith slurped around Shiro’s dick. He mapped Shiro’s body by touch as he sucked, feeling across his abdomen, down his thighs, and around to palm at the perfect globes of Shiro’s ass. They felt perfect in his hands. 

Keith kneaded Shiro’s ass and used his grip to force Shiro deeper down his throat. He almost choked but breathed through it, and soon he was well enough accustomed to Shiro’s girth to let Shiro take control. Shiro speared into Keith’s waiting mouth with growing abandon. The soft touch in Keith’s hair quickly grew into a tight grip, holding Keith steady.

Keith moaned Shiro’s name and kept his lips tight over his teeth. His fingers felt the muscles of Shiro’s ass as they thrust him forward.

Keith was all but naked now. His pants were trapped around his knees on the floor, but he was otherwise bare. Shiro’s detached arm pet and soothed him as he worked. It drew circles along Keith’s torso, then kneaded along his shoulders and down his spine. 

Slowly, Shiro worked his way down to Keith’s ass. In one swoop he covered close to the entire width of Keith’s ass in his metal palm. He slipped one finger between the cleft and touched tentatively along the sensitive skin.

Keith gasped at Shiro’s light touch hard enough that he actually choked himself on Shiro’s thick cock. He pulled back, stuttering and coughing. His body shook from his coughs so that Shiro’s dick smacked lightly across his face until Shiro grabbed himself and held himself out of the way. 

“Sorry,” Shiro said. He moved to take his Altean arm away, but Keith grabbed him by the wrist.

“Don’t be sorry,” Keith said around another cough, and he moved Shiro’s hand to press against his hole. “Just don’t stop.”

Shiro did stop – almost immediately. He pulled out of Keith’s grasp and grabbed him by the thigh, his other hand catching Keith’s underarm. Shiro lifted Keith easily in the air and threw him bodily onto the bed.

Keith screamed and laughed as he bounced. He nearly went far enough to fall off the other side, and he hollered out a “whoa!” as he caught himself near the edge. 

“C’mere, baby,” Shiro said into the dark as he crawled onto the bed. Keith moved towards the movement. He stopped short when Shiro’s wrist slapped against his chest.

“Ouf!” Keith reached out blindly and grabbed awkwardly at Shiro, pulling him down atop of himself. 

They landed weird, with one of Shiro’s knees pressed into Keith’s thigh, and the brunt of Shiro’s weight falling on Keith’s chest and knocking the wind out of him. 

“You ok?” Shiro asked with a bit of a laugh as they settled more comfortably along each other. 

“Perfect,” Keith replied, still a little breathless from Shiro’s fall. He tried to wrap his legs around Shiro as emphasis, but he was stalled by the pants that still encircled his shins. “Fuck!” He wiggled and kicked out his legs, bouncing himself in the process of freeing himself from his fabric captor.

“K-Keith,” Shiro groaned, feeling the wild movements beneath him and joining in rather enthusiastically with his hips.

“Fuck, no, Shiro…” Keith growled, becoming frustrated with the pants. Shiro was a delicious distraction, but Keith wanted these pants gone! “Shiro!” Keith cried out. The captain had shifted himself to align their erections and rut down into Keith, and just like that, the pants were forgotten.

Keith clawed lightly at Shiro’s back, and nuzzled at his face until their lips could come together. They kissed sloppy and breathless for a long moment before Keith’s wits started to return.

“No, Shiro, not like this,” Keith said in a hoarse and panting voice. He tilted his hips up high enough to shift Shiro’s weight; they both groaned. “I want you in me.”

Keith’s strong fingers wrapped around Shiro’s mechanical hand and drew it back down between his legs, opening them as far as his pants would allow.

Shiro’s breath caught in his throat as he realized where Keith was guiding his touch. He leaned down to fit his lips lightly over Keith’s.

“You’re sure about this?” Though this was not their first time, they were only together 8 days, and Shiro was still nervous about what Keith could take.

Keith pressed Shiro against his tight rim and moaned an answer into Shiro’s mouth. “I’m completely sure,” he said a moment later. His free hand carded through Shiro’s hair then cupped his cheek. “I’m sure I love you, and I’m sure I want you. And I’m sure if you don’t fuck me into the mattress tonight then I’m staging a protest.”

Keith could feel Shiro’s grin against his lips.

“A protest huh?” 

Keith’s smart-ass reply was lost as Shiro pressed more firmly against him, testing the elasticity of his rim. 

“God!” Keith sighed, “Yesss…” He tilted his head back, and Shiro took advantage by sucking hard over his pulse. 

“I’ll… write a petition…”

“Not a petition,” Shiro said in mock concern before he trailed delicate nibbles along the curve of Keith’s throat. “Who would sign it?”

“Everyone, if they know what’s good for them,” Keith threatened. The dark edge to his voice was convincing and it made Shiro laugh more than anything else. 

“Alright, alright. Don’t go threatening my crew.” Shiro pulled back, leaving his Altean hand behind as he crawled one-handed to the bedside table and began fumbling in the dark for the lube. He gasped when he felt Keith’s hands wrap around the metal wrist, twisting and pulling Shiro’s hand over himself like it was a toy. “K-eith… you’re… oh god..!” Shiro stammered. He had stalled out at the side of the bed, holding the bottle of lube loosely. 

“You feel so good, Shiro. Fuck, it’s good. Hey,” Keith lifted a hand to paw at Shiro’s side and beckon him back, “come back here. I want more.”

Shiro was back over top of Keith within a moment. His knee landed in the pool of Keith’s discarded pants, and he tossed it off the bed before he settled between Keith’s legs. 

Keith grabbed at Shiro’s arm and shoulders, trying to pull the larger man down again, wanting to feel the hot weight of his body pressing him down into the blankets, but Shiro resisted. He lowered himself down instead to nuzzle and mouth at Keith’s cock before spreading a greased up finger along the edge of Keith’s asshole. 

Keith whimpered at Shiro’s first intrusion, but it was a good whimper that came with a soft plea for more at the end of it. 

The first tentative touch had sent Keith reeling back in surprise, but after that Keith quickly adapted to Shiro’s touch, moaning, and writhing into his hand like he was desperate for more. And the truth was that Keith was desperate. He was sensitive in all the right ways, and he trusted Shiro implicitly. He loosened easily under Shiro’s touch.

Once he was wide enough, Shiro switched to his metal hand, spreading Keith further and fucking into him a little harder. Shiro took the opportunity to shift back up and lay over Keith’s body.

Instinctively, Keith wrapped his arms around Shiro’s body and lifted one leg to wrap around Shiro’s hips. 

“How you doing, sweetheart?” Shiro whispered into Keith’s ear.

Keith nuzzled against Shiro’s cheek. “It- it feels so good, Shiro… ooh, it’s perfect. I can’t wait to have you in me. If I had known this is what sex feels like, I would have done it a lot sooner,” he said, honestly. He covered it up with a light chuckle, but Shiro knew it was sincere.

“I wish I’d known sooner,” Shiro said, pausing mid-sentence to drop a kiss to Keith’s waiting lips, “how much I care for you. I wasted all that time not loving you.”  
Keith stopped Shiro’s words with a hard kiss that broke only when Keith had to gasp for breath. 

“Shiro…”

“Yeah?”

“I think I’m ready.”

Shiro bit lightly at Keith’s lower lip. “I think you’re right.”

He sat back on his knees once again to slick himself up. Then he balanced his weight on his elbow, craning his neck down to kiss Keith to distraction while he slowly lined himself up and pressed in.

Keith gasped at the feeling of being stretched and filled. He spread his legs even wider, catching his heels on Shiro’s lower back as he opened himself to his boyfriend. 

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, Shiro,” Keith chanted in a low voice, urging Shiro onwards. 

There was a stretch to it, and something akin to pain. But Keith knew pain, he knew it intimately, and this wasn’t it. It felt too good, even when it sent a shudder up his spine.

He clawed at Shiro’s back in earnest, thinking to himself that he may end up adding a scar of his own to the mosaic before the end of the night. He said at much to Shiro, who chuckled lightly.

“Good. Give me a scar to treasure.”

Keith dug his nails in even harder as Shiro bottomed out and stilled within him. Keith took the moment’s respite to accustom himself to the new feelings. He shifted his hips and clenched lightly, feeling Shiro’s hard cock with his body.

“Fuu-uck,” Shiro drawled out. He couldn’t help moving his hips at the feeling of Keith clenching down around him. “Perfect. You’re perfect.” He dropped his head to kiss at Keith’s jaw and whisper into his ear. 

He started slow with his movements, but soon enough Keith’s writhing and pleased moans had him building the pace. 

“You like me inside of you, baby?” Shiro asked, hot, over Keith’s ear. Keith groaned and dug nails into Shiro’s bicep in response. “Hey, tell me. I want to hear now much you like me fucking you.”

“Christ!” Keith called out, tilting his hips up to get more of Shiro inside him. “I love it. Shiro, I love it. I don’t want this to stop.”

“It won’t, Keith. It won’t.”

Of course, that was a complete nonsense promise, but for a moment they both believed it. They were so lost in each other, and in drawing out their pleasure, each moment seemed to last its own eternity. But they were both overwhelmed from their drinks at the party, and the high of their own emotions, and the newness of their first time like this. Soon enough, Shiro was spilling into Keith and his fist was flying over Keith’s erection, bringing him to his own conclusion shortly after.

Shiro collapsed over Keith and Keith wrapped him up in strong, slender arms. They lay together for a long time, feeling their hearts pound against each other’s chest. 

Slowly, Keith’s fingers drifted up to comb through Shiro’s hair. Shiro lifted his head just enough to draw Keith into a series of slow kisses. They whispered ‘I love you’s onto plump lips in between their kisses. 

After a while, their sweet kisses began to be interrupted by yawns. Shiro begrudgingly rolled off Keith then, and the two of them padded together into the bathroom to get cleaned up. They hid their hands against the bright lights of the bathroom, then teased each other in the mirror for their ‘bed head.’ 

Then they pulled off the top blanket from the bed and cuddled in together under the sheets. Shiro sent his arm off to rest on the dresser for the night, then wriggled over to use Keith’s chest as his pillow. 

Keith immediately wrapped Shiro in a loose embrace and snuggled his nose into Shiro’s white hair.

“Thank you,” he said softly.

“For what?”

“For this,” Keith shuffled under him for further clarification, “and for everything. For loving me.”

“You don’t have to thank me, Keith. This is – you are everything I could have hoped for. I should be thanking you.”

“Mmm…” Keith’s reply came out lazy, like he was seconds away from sleep.

Shiro smiled. “Goodnight, love. I love you.”

He twisted his head to press a quick kiss over Keith’s pec, and settled back into place as Keith murmured a sleepy “love you too.”

They were asleep within moments, safe in each other’s arms. 

Home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to anyone who reads this! When I published the first chapter I was SO SURE it would only take me a week or 2 to pound out an epilogue, and now it's like 4 months later and it's FINALLY done.
> 
> This whole series was really hard for me to write for some reason, and then season 8 mildly wrecked me, and I'm just really really glad to have this done and never think about it again. On re-read I like this, but it was murder to write. 
> 
> Also, I was more than half-way done the last sex scene when I realized they couldn't be in the dark because Shiro's Altean arm glows and I just couldn't bring myself to fix it. So, I guess it has a night-mode or something. I dunno.
> 
> As always, I live off comments and kudos.
> 
> I update other things much more regularly, and if you like Sheith, I've got tons of it! I also always post new chapters to twitter and tumblr (though I'm definitely more active on twitter).
> 
> Twitter: @WTuesdays  
> Tumblr: WatermelonTuesdays

**Author's Note:**

> Season 8 is here!!!!
> 
> I haven't watched it yet because I'm an idiot who promised I'd wait for my friend to get off work so we could watch together. 
> 
> I didn't get the porn written in time, but I'm gonna probably do that this week coming, so if you wanna see Keith and Shiro bang it out, stay tuned!
> 
> You should also consider giving me kudos for this, because I think it's the most romantic thing I've written yet! I really loved writing the dance lesson and I'm proud of how it turned out ^-^
> 
> Tumblr: WatermelonTuesdays  
> Twitter: WTuesdays


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